The Congress and the BJP are entangled in a tussle over Ishrat Jahan’s encounter case which has been termed fake. After 9 long years when she was killed along with three other men by the Gujarat Police, the CBI has stated she was not involved in any terrorist activity.

BJP President Rajnath Singh put forth the demand that the government should reveal her linkage with any terrorist group. On the charges that it was misusing the CBI, the Congress retaliated that BJP should, on the contrary, explain how the state government in Gujarat misused the police and innocent people’s lives were lost.

Rajnath Singh stated that the CBI charge sheet does not take much into the consideration of the role of LeT and terrorists. Also, it was stated that even though 3000 encounters happened in India prior to 2003, but this case was getting more attention from the Union government and that it was pitching CBI against IB.

Kapil Sibal, talking on behalf of the Congress, stated that there was no question of the government being involved and misusing the CBI as this case is being handled by the court.

04-Jul-2013Others

82 special trains for the Rath Yatra

82 special trains for the Rath Yatra will be run by Indian Railways. The Chariot Festival starts at Puri in Odisha from July 10.

The trains will connect Puri, which is 56 km away from Bhubaneswar, with various points in the state as well as there would be trains connecting to West Bengal and Andhra Pradesh.

Other than this, the 25 pairs of regular trains will run as scheduled. To tackle the huge number of pilgrims, 35 more ticket counters will be there at the Puri railway station working 24x7. In the Rath Yatra festival Lord Jagannath, his brother Balabhadra and sister Subhadra idols are brought out of the temple, which is considered auspicious.

04-Jul-2013Business

RBI supports Chidambaram's call for rate cuts by banks

RBI has supported Finance Minister P. Chidambaram's directive to the banks to channelize the benefits of rate cuts to customers. RBI Governor D. Subbarao stated that the central bank is aware of the requirement to initiate steps to support economic growth.

The Finance Minister asked the banks to slash the base lending rates in conformance with the rate cuts done periodically by the RBI. Subbarao also opined that rates cuts will lure the investors. He also stated that the banks should have responded to the rate cuts by the RBI by slashing their lending rates, but only some of them did.

He also specified that the central bank was fully aware of offering support to the economic growth. He also added that the RBI will take measures to tone down the rupee’s volatility.

04-Jul-2013Sports

161 runs defeat and fine for slow over rate, India's trouble in the tri-series continues

A fine has been imposed on the Indian team for a slow over rate against Sri Lanka. India's stand-in captain Virat Kohli will have to shell 20 per cent of his match fees while the other team members will give 10 per cent.

This adds to the woes of the team which suffered a humiliating 161-run defeat against Sri Lanka at the Sabina Park. Two defeats now put them in a tight spot and India has to win against the West Indies on Friday. This means there is huge pressure on the team as they have to do away with the fear of elimination. Kohli, the acting captain, will need to charge up the young team whose morale will be low after mustering up only 187 runs against the mammoth total of 348 runs by Sri Lanka.

There are speculations whether fatigue is showing on the side and if India is playing too much cricket. The team had played the Champions Trophy only ten days back. They are scheduled to play Zimbabwe later.

Sanjay Dutt has asked to cancel the Dubai premiere of Policegiri and instead asked to have a paid premiere of the movie so that funds can be raised for Uttarakhand victims.

Sanjay is serving three and half years jail term. Manyata, his wife, informed him about the premiere at Dubai and then he came up with this suggestion.

Also since there are no artists who would have gone to Dubai with Sanjay being in prison, it was not feasible to hold the premiere there. The funds which would be raised would be sent to the Prime Minister’s Relief Fund. The movie Policegiri, which is directed by KS Ravikumar, hits theaters on Friday.

Sanjay Dutt essays the character of a police officer in the movie.

04-Jul-2013Science and Technology

LG Optimus G Pro launched at Rs 42,500

LG Electronics has launched Optimus G Pro, the latest in the Optimus series at a price tag of Rs 42,500. The phone is powered by 1.7 GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 600 quad-core processor, has a 5.5-inch HD screen, 400ppi pixel density, runs on Android Jellybean v 4.1.2.

The phone comes with a 13 mp camera with full HD of 2.1 mp and a secondary camera. Other features which can attract the users are its 2 GB RAM and 16 GB internal memory. There is also a panorama feature which enables 360-degree viewing.